Tea with Sangria: 2016

Sculptures by the sea

06:20:00

Hi boys and girls,

we know it's been ages since our last post but as I (Afri), have been away for a while in LA (3 weeks!), and then we haven't really done anything interesting enough to take nice pictures of, we have abandoned the blog a little bit.

But here we are again! Things over here are going well, specially now that we are mega excited as summer is finally arriving yesssss! After a year an a half of winter (since August 2015 in London), we can finally get some vitamin D back into our bodies and stop looking like ghosts! (though I know of someone who might swap the ghost face for a crab one hee hee).

So our plans now mainly involve going to the beach and enjoying the sunshine, and in my case, feeling the pressure to work out because everyone in Bondi seems to have come straight out of a fitness catalogue!! tssssssss...

We are also super excited because we have planned our Xmas holidays, as it will be our first time alone, so we are heading to the Great coral barrier reef!! so yep, expect very nice pictures from that. Unless, of course, we get eaten by a crocodile, as apparently there are some at the beach - yeah, there are crocodiles in the sea too, I always though they only lived in rivers, wtf? - together with the sharkies and the jellyfishes... ahhh mother nature is awesome. But don't worry, don't worry, you don't have to fear for our lives too much, because we have smartly booked a hotel with a nice swimming pool, so we can report to you all of our news from there lol.

So after this little intro, our post today is about a super nice exhibition we went to that they do between Bondi Beach and Tamarama Beach once a year, called Sculptures by the Sea. It is free and it is really nice to see, as they have sculptures from different artists from many countries, and all have been placed around the coastal walk overlooking the sea, so it's a very nice weekend plan, specially when you are hangover like us in the pictures (therefore please don't judge our terrible looks). See below!

And that's all from us at the moment, hopefully we will visit new places and we will bring you some more lovely and enjoyable posts like this :p

Speak soooooon!

A&J xx

Australia

Darling Harbour and Sydney's Fish Market - yummy yummy!

05:25:00

Hi guyssssss!

sorry it's been a while since our last post. We were trying to put some pictures together so we could show you another part of Sydney, which in today's post is the famous Darling Harbour and the not so famous, but a must see, Sydney's Fish Market! :)

Darling Harbour is one of the most touristy places in the city, but it is very beautiful and relaxing, as it is a massive pedestrianised harbour full of restaurants and bars where you can walk around and enjoy a drink (a pricey one though), next to the water and with lovely views.

It also hosts these 3 museums: Madame Tussauds, the Sydney Aquarium and the Sydney Wildlife World, as well as a few hotels, clubs, casinos, the Hard Rock Café, an IMAX cinema and a shopping centre.

If you come to Sydney it is worth walking around here, and if it's the summer, fight for a seat outside to do lots of people-watching. They also have a few music festivals done here, which we hope to go to and post some pictures for you of course!

Not far from there, if you cross the harbour and walk west towards Aznac bridge, just crossing the highway to enter like an industrial area (it looks dodgy but it's ok!), it is Sydney's Fish market. We were told by a lot of people that it is a must see, and we totally agree!

When you enter the busy food court, you will see to your right loads of different stalls with so much seafood and fish types that you would want to buy everything! They have local fish but also international, so you can also find the weirdest things, that you won't even now how to eat lol (e.g. sea cucumbers in the picture below??).

And then on the left side, there are a few restaurants where they serve grilled fish, sushi and sashimi, fried fish, seafood skewers and oysters, loads of oysters! It is quite cheap compared to any other fish place, but you get so tempted to eat so much that it's hard not to spend more that you wish!

Honestly, for any fish lover, it's the place to go, you order what you want, grab some take away boxes, and sit outside by the water to enjoy your food in the sun (if seagulls and Ibis let you!).

Hope you have enjoyed our post, it is still cold here (even if spring just started) but hopefully soon we will show you the real beach lifestyle when it gets a bit warmer!

Speak to you sooooooooon! :)
xx

chinatown

Christmas in July and a day in Chinatown

07:12:00

Hi guys!

hope you have had a nice weekend and are surviving Monday which, I'm telling you, is as boring from a housewife's point of view!

We are very good, had an amazing time last weekend as we celebrated Christmas in July for the first time! You probably won't know (we didn't know either), but as it is winter here now, everyone does a second Christmas celebration now in July, which is hilarious! haha as the real Christmas in December is sooo hot and it would be impossible to wear a Christmas jumper, they celebrate it again now, and lots of shops sell decorations and things again haha We were really willing to follow the tradition, and our friends Phil and Chris invited us to their place and organised the whole thing - a lovely Christmas tree, Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is you" played repeteadly, lots of food and a great time with lots of friends!

We were quite hangover on Sunday, so decided to go to Chinatown and get stuffed with dumpligs! Asian food is amazing here, as you can imagine, and when our friend Karolina told us that they do something amazing called Yum Cha we had to try it. According to Wikipedia: Yum cha, also known as going for dim sum, is a type of Chinese style brunch tea, which involves drinking Chinese tea and eating dim sum.

In more simple words, you just go to the restaurant, sit down, and the waiters come around with trolleys full of dim sum, rolls, rice, meat, etc. You select everything you want (super cheap) and pay at the end depending on the number of dishes you've eaten. Sooo good!

And once we had recovered our energies, we went for a walk around Chinatown,which is lovely and full of amazing shops and restaurants. The main street reminded us a bit to the one in London, don't you think?

And by the end of the day, we also visited Paddy's market. It is a Chinese market right in the center of the city, in Haymarket area, that has been there since the 1800's and is mainly divided in 2 parts: a flea market (great to find souvernirs, imitation stuff, clothes, costumes, phone accessories, etc.) and a vegetable and fruit market. We fell in love with the second bit, as you can buy really rare veggies and food, and it's literally half price as the normal supermarkets! So thanks to that visit, we literally have our fridge full of super tasty veggies and fruits for the week. See a few pics below, doesn't it look nice?